Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 314 pages of information about Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862.

Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 314 pages of information about Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862.
upon us.  While we rejoice in our recent victories, and believe that this wicked rebellion will soon be subdued, we must rejoice with trembling, so long as SLAVERY, the acknowledged casus belli, still remains.  The unsightly monster, in all its rottenness and deformity, is drawn up from the hiding-place of ages, and it can no more be restored to its former status, than, at the will of the workmen, our old pump could be thrust back, when, suspended in the air, it threatened their destruction.  God forbid that our rulers should desire it!  What, then, is to be done?  No giant mind has yet been found to grapple successfully with this great evil—­no body of men who can concentrate a moral power sufficient to remove this worn-out system, without endangering some interest of vital importance to our beloved country.
Zion must now lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes, for the wisdom of the wise has become foolishness, that God alone may be exalted.  He will surely bring down every high thought, and every vain imagination, and his own people must learn what it is ‘to receive the kingdom of God as little children.’  How shall liberty be proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of the land, to all the inhabitants thereof, and, in obedience to the will of God, this year become a year of jubilee to the poor and oppressed of our nation?  How shall the emancipation of slavery conduce to the best interest of the master, no less than to the happiness of the slave?
Probably some very simple solution will be given to this question, in answer to the earnest cry of God’s people.  Should it please him to hide this thought for the crisis from the wise and prudent, and reveal it unto babes, God grant that it may be in our hearts to respond, ’Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight.’

* * * * *

The simple solution has already been begun by our Executive, in recognizing the principle—­its extraordinary advance among all classes will soon fully develop it.  In illustration of this we quote a letter which the editor of the New Haven Journal and Courier vouches to come from an officer in the navy, known to him:—­

From what we see and know of the operations of the rebels in this part of the South (the Southern coast, where he has been stationed), and from what we see perfidious Englishmen doing for the rebels, we are fast becoming strong abolitionists.  We feel that now Slavery must receive its death-blow, and be destroyed forever from the country.  You would be surprised to see the change going on in the minds of officers in our service, who have been great haters of abolitionists; and the Southerners in our navy are the most bitter toward those who have made slavery the great cause of war.  They freely express the opinion that the whole system must be abolished, and even our old captain, who is a native of Tennessee, and who
Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.